The debt has many causes: The Bush tax cuts, the 2 Bush wars, Afghanistan and Irak to name the main ones.The Obama administration added 1 T$ in a stimulus plan and almost as much as a bank and auto companies bailout. Therefore the remedies are rather simple: Repeal the Bush tax cuts, stop all 3 wars ( Is Libya a war?). I would add stop the futile 30 years war on drugs and tax the illicit product, thus emptying jails, cutting down on police spending and giving back felons the means to have a proper job. We could also pare down the defense budget. The cold war is over. The Pentagon has a budget equivalent to that of the total budget of FRance. It is larger that the sum total of all the military budgets in the world.
Besides, the debt has ballooned because of a huge revenue decrease caused by unemployment. When the historically high number of the unemployed returns to work and starts paying taxes again, revenues will flow in federal coffers again.
Also, it is time to make corporations pay taxes (GE pays o$). They have hired armies of lawyers to exploit or create (lobbies) loopholes a mile wide that exempts them of any contribution to the public good. And finally, a huge myth on the debt: China only owns 9% of our debt. The US public owns 47 % through the purchase of T Bills and other financial vehicles.
So conservatives are using this crisis to exaggerate a perfectly explainable situation (the recovery of the worst financial crisis in 80 years!) and excluding the normal tools to remedy it. It is a war on the poor and disenfranchised, a class war that dares not say its name.
And for those who fear the impending doom predicted by the reactionaries: US Treasury Bills still command a 3.7% interest rate , whereas Greece is now at 14%.
There are many social needs in the US. Now is not the time to repeal the 20th Century and go back to the 1890s. I think that when the voters understand Mr Ryan's budget, there will be a Conservative Waterloo in November 2012.
